What’s YOUR preferred outdoor activity?

Here in New Zealand, we’re blessed with a wealth of choices for staying active in the great outdoors. It’s not just about pounding the pavement, or chasing a ball (although plenty of Kiwis enjoy doing those things too). But we’re lucky enough to also have options to:

Get active on – or in – the water: swimming, sailing, and even kite surfing

Head out off-road: long hikes, trail running, or just a short bushwalk

Go to a class outside: anything from outdoor yoga to boxing to Bootcamp classes

Regardless of how YOU like to move your body, though, you’ll need healthy, mobile joints to really enjoy it. And to keep your joints in working order, it can help to understand a bit about their basic biology.

How healthy joints help keep you active

“Joint” is the term for any place in your body where separate bones meet. There are three main types:

Some – like the ones in your skull – don’t move at all.

Others – for example, your elbows, fingers and knees – flex and straighten on a single plane.

The third type – your shoulders and hips, for example – rotate, so they can move in many different directions.

Whether you run, swim, stretch or punch, it’s the contraction of the muscles attached to your bones that moves your limbs. And the tough, fibrous tissue that covers the end of those bones to stop them grating against each other – cartilage – is what makes all that movement comfortable.

So you can see why keeping your cartilage healthy is so essential if you want to keep enjoying all that outdoor activity.

Why joints often need a little TLC as you get older

Activity and lifestyle factors can take their toll on your cartilage – and over time, the tissue tends to become thinner and more brittle. For most of your early life, your body naturally produces all the compounds it needs to repair and rebuild joint cartilage.

As you get older, though – especially once you hit your mid-to-late-40s – it gets harder for your body to keep up with all that wear and tear. So you might start to notice niggles – stiffness or discomfort – after pushing yourself.

And that’s why a little nutritional joint support can go a long way in helping you to stay as active as you’d like to be.

Two options to help you maintain healthy, mobile joints

Glucosamine and chondroitin are two of the best known joint-supporting compounds that your body naturally produces. You’ll often see these compounds as ingredients in joint health formulas, which work by directly restocking your body’s innate levels.

Nutra-Life Joint Care provides both glucosamine and chondroitin, along with selected minerals that support joint comfort and mobility. By providing glucosamine and chondroitin directly, Nutra-Life Joint Care helps to replenish your body’s own stores.

That means it’s an ideal entry level product, with 2capsules daily usually being enough to provide the joint support you need within 6-8 weeks.

Nutra-Life Joint Care Advanced works differently. It incorporates a unique, innovative ingredient called NEM® (short for “Natural Eggshell Membrane”). NEM® not only provides naturally-occurring glucosamine and chondroitin, but also other important joint support compounds, including proteins, collagen, and hyaluronic acid.

Exciting research is showing that NEM® can support joint comfort in just 10 days*. in a small single 500mg capsule daily dose.

If you’re not sure which option is right for you, speak to your pharmacist or health store professional. Either way: don’t let joint niggles keep you from enjoying the best of what the great New Zealand outdoors has to offer!